Great Quotations: Taylor Goldsmith Of Dawes

I feel like my voice has changed in a lot of ways because I stopped singing like a screaming idiot, and I kept thinking, “How am I going to maintain myself in order to keep doing this forever?” With certain songs—like “When My Time Comes,” which is very high and hard to sing—sometimes I think, “This is not an easy song to sing tonight. I wonder how I’ll be able to do this in thirty years.”

[Bob] Dylan just shows that it really doesn’t matter. If the song is good, it doesn’t matter if he can hit the big ol’ A-natural. It’s just a good song. Everybody always beats themselves up—I’m not a good enough singer, I’m not a good-enough guitar player—but if you’re a good-enough songwriter, none of that would ever matter. That’s what I’m shooting for, and I’m looking to these guys—to Dylan, to Jackson [Browne]—and how they’ve reshaped their careers to suit them to where they’re at now.

– Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, on what he learned from opening for Bob Dylan

Cover Story: Dawes – America’s Favorite New Band